Packing container for breakable and sensitive objects



March 3, 1970 w. ZUMPEL ETAL 3,493,520

PACKING CONTAINER FOR BREAKABLE AND SENSITIVE OBJECTS Filed July 8, 1968 FIG. Ia. 'FIG. lb. F163.

INVENIORS WILLY ZUMPEL UWE GRONEWOLD ATTORNEY.

United States Patent 3,498,520 PACKING CONTAINER FOR BREAKABLE AND SENSITIVE OBJECTS F Willy Ziimpel, Scholener Strasse 2, Bremen-Osterholz- Tenever, Germany, and Uwe Gronewold, Goldener Reif 143, Bremen-Huchting, Germany Filed July 8, 1968, Ser. No. 743,152 Claims priority, application Germany, Dec. 20, 1967,

Int. Cl. B6511 3 38, 25/22 US. Cl. 2298 9 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates to a packing container for breakable and sensitive objects. It is known that, for example, live flowers, particularly cut flowers, are very pressure sensitive or breakable, and for this reason the conventional wrappings are insufficient in the purchase of such objects, or at least do not suflice, in order to protect expensive flowers as, for instance, orchids, during wrapping and unwrapping and during the transportation from one store to the place of use.

It is, therefore, one object of the present invention to provide a packing container which avoids these drawbacks.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a packing container for breakable and sensitive objects, which packing container is designed such that it could be used thereafter for another purpose.

Such other purpose of use can reside, for instance, in the fact that the packing container is used as a vase, that is, thus a vessel for cut flowers. Also flowers which must stand in water during the transportation because they wither very fast otherwise, should be transportable in the container. For this purpose, it is necessary that the lower part of the container is non-penetrable, that is water-tight. From this, another use possibility arises, namely for instance fancy fish or live fish fodder can be transported in the container without drawbacks for the content and without pouring the liquid (water) from the container.

In order to include these possibilities, the packing container is of a particular shape and is equipped in its upper part with perforations. Also, one or a plurality of particularly designed insert bodies are provided inside of the container which render possible the insertion of flowers in a particular arrangement.

It is one object of the present invention to provide a packing container for breakable and sensitive objects, wherein the packing container is made of two parts of substantially transparent, yet sufficiently stiff synthetic material, light in weight, which material permits a simple and easy deformation during the production.

The packing container comprises a cup-shaped lower vessel part which, under circumstances, should be colorder or non-transparent, yet non-penetrable, that means water-tight. This pot shaped lower vessel part can have a circular cross-sectional shape. An upper part, which is formed, for instance, conically or like a pyramid, is fittingly mounted on the edge of the pot-shaped lower part and is releasably connected with the latter. At the upper end of the upper part pointing upwardly with the coneor pyramidapex, a gripping ring or a gripping knob or the like is provided, which makes possible a comfortable carrying of the packing container, whereby thus the closed container is suspended on the grip or grip ring.

The securing of the two edges of the lower vessel part and the upper vessel part, which point towards and overlap each other, takes place either by means of point-welding by use of a tongue-like welding tool, whereby the overlapping edge of the lower vessel part is bent downwardly or the overlapping edge of the upper part is equipped with a beaded edge, which rests resiliently upon application on the edge of the lower part, behind the edge of this part or in provided cavities in the edge zone of the wall of the lower part. The spring force is suflicient in order to carry the lower part of the vessel and permits furthermore an easy releasing of the two parts.

One or a plurality of insert bodies are coordinated for the lower vessel part in an auxiliary manner, for instance, a cup-shaped insert body for the reception of water and, under circumstances, some sand for the lateral securing of stem ends extending into this sand of inserted flowers. A conical insert body, equipped with perforations and its apex pointing upwardly, or a bell shaped further insert body can additionally be used, whereby the ends of the stems of inserted flowers are extended through the perforations of this insert body for lateral securing thereof.

During street transportation, the upper cup-shaped part of the packing container covers the flowers or the sensitive objects to be protected. This upper vessel part is produced suitably of clear transparent synthetic material, so that already prior to unwrapping the objects provided in the container, the content can be observed. By a conical or pyramid-shaped formation of the upper part of the container it is assured that during removal of this part, a damage to the sensitive container content cannot occur.

In a further development of the present invention, it is provided that the end of the upper vessel part of the container equipped with a grip, for instance, the cone apex or the pyramid apex of the upper cup-shaped container part is separable, so that then the entire unit can be dedicated to another purpose of use, for instance for the use of a flower vase. For this purpose, the upper container part is equipped with a surrounding separating groove, for instance, as a squeezing fold, which simplifies the separation and the remaining jacket part has perforations, through which the stems of inserted flowers project, as shown in FIG. 5 of the drawings.

With these and other objects in view which will become apparent by example from the following detailed description, the present invention will be clearly understood in connection with the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIGURE la and FIGURE 1b disclose elevations, partly in section, of a packing container, whereby in the embodiment of FIG. 1a, the edge of the lower container part is bent downwardly, and in FIG. 1b, the edge of the lower container part is bent upwardly and is inserted into a beaded edge formation of the lower edge of the upper container, in which case the edge of the lower part engages resiliently the edge formation of the upper part;

FIGS. 2a and 2b are elevations, partly in section, similar to those in FIGS. 1a and 1b, but showing exploded views;

FIG. 3 is an elevation of the packing container by using the latter for transportation of live fancy fish which swim in water;

FIG. 4 is an elevation of the container with separable cone apex by using the container as a wind light; and

FIG. 5 is an elevation of the packing container without cone apex, in case it is used as a flower vase.

Referring now to the drawings, and in particular to FIGS. la, lb, 2a and 2b, the packing container comprises a pot-shaped lower part of circular cross-section, on which a conical upper part 2 is fittingly mounted and secured. This upper part 2 has in its jacket perforations 3 for the insertion of stems of flowers and for airing the container content, respectively. The cone apex 4 of the upper part 2 of the container is equipped with a gripping ring 5, in order to simplify the carrying of the closed container. The two container parts are releasably connected together at the overlapping edges 7 within the range of the edge fortification 6. The upper part 2 has a beaded edge 8 which engages the edge of the lower part during mounting due to the resiliency of the material and thereby both parts are easily releasably connected. The upper part 2 may be of conical or pyramid shape, defining a triangle in elevation.

In the pot-shaped lower part 1 of the container, a cup 9 open at its top is inserted for reception of water and furthermore a conical or bell-shaped insert body 10 is provided, which body 10 has perforations for the insertion of ends of flower stems. Instead of the conical body 10, it is also possible to fill sand into the cup 9, whereby the ends of flower stems are sufliciently fixed, if they project through the perforations 3 of the upper part2 of the container, as it is disclosed in FIG. of the drawmgs.

At the upper container part 2, in the sense of an intended breaking zone, a surrounding groove or squeezing fold 11 is provided which simplifies the separation of the cone apex, if and as long as the container is supposed to be dedicated to another use in the sense of FIGS. 4 and 5.

During the transportation of live fish or live food in water for aquarium fish, the conically shaped upper part 4 is removed with the gripping ring 5. Under circumstances, also these two parts can be repeatedly releasably connected without arranging of a squeezing fold, for instance by means of catch members which are worked out of the container material, and which engage in cavities of projections of the other container parts, for instance in the provided air holes or perforations 3, so that also in case of a greater weight load by water in the lower part of the container, a reliable connection is assured.

We claim:

1. A multi-part, multi-purpose packing container for breakable and sensitive objects, as live plants, live fancy fish, or the like, comprising a pot-shaped lower vessel part of non-penetrable working material and having a first edge portion, an upper hood-like vessel part fittingly mounted on said edge and releasably secured thereto and having at its upper end a suspension means, as well as at its lower end a second edge portion, and i said upper hood-like vessel part is substantially triangular in elevation and has perforations over its periphery.

2. The packing container, as set forth in claim 1, wherein said upper hood-like vessel part is of conical shape.

3. The packing container, as set forth in claim 1, wherein said upper hood-like vessel part is of pyramid shape.

4. The packing container, as set forth in claim 1, wherein said suspension means comprises a holding ring.

5. The packing container, as set forth in claim 1,

wherein at least one exchangeable insert body disposed in said lower vessel part, and said insert body is of grid-work form and extends over the bottom of said lower vessel. 6. The packing container, as set forth in claim 1, wherein said edge portions of said vessel parts point towards each other and overlap each other sealingly in a closing position and also engage each other resiliently, and said first edge portion comprises a circumferential edge bead which interengages said second edge portion resiliently and can be releasably separated therefrom. 7. The packing container, as set forth in claim 1,

- wherein said upper vessel part has a circumferential crossgroove to divide said upper vessel part into two portions, said cross-groove functioning a pre-prepared breaking line.

8. The packing container, as set forth in claim 6,

wherein said first edge portion is cylindrical and said lower vessel includes inclined walls slanting inwardly and downwardly away from said cylindrical first edge portion,

said second edge portion is cylindrical and has a height substantially equal to that of said first edge portion,

said circumferential edge bead at the lower end of said second edge portion, and

said circumferential edge bead releasably abuts said inclined wall of said lower vessel in said closing position.

9. The packing container, as set forth in claim 5,

wherein said insert body includes inwardly upwardly slanting walls terminating in an upper edge defining an upper opening,

said grid-work form of said insert body comprises a plurality of grid openings axially oriented offset from a perpendicular position relative to said slanting walls and'oriented substantially toward a vertical position, and

said grid openings substantially smaller than said perforations and adapted to hold lower portions of flower stems therein.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,486,045 10/1949 Madden 229--8 X 2,739,751 3/1956 Bailey 22943 X 3,330,321 7/1967 Wels l50--1 3,389,851 6/1968 Clark 2204 DAVID M. BOCKENEK, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 229-- 52 

